


Study Dates

by orphan_account



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, First Kiss, First Meetings, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Studying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-05
Updated: 2016-11-05
Packaged: 2018-08-29 07:09:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8480161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Saeran finds himself becoming progressively more attached to a girl he sees studying in the college library, but he still can't work up the courage to talk to her.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little thing I wrote as a request on tumblr, and I decided I quite liked it.  
> Also, this contains spoilers for Seven's route (but I suppose you wouldn't be here if you didn't already know that!)

Saeran knew her timetable.

He insisted that it wasn’t as bad as it sounds, but it sort of was.

He didn’t know the  _specific details_ of her timetable. For example, he didn’t know _which_ classes she had. Just when she had them. And when she was usually in the library.

He had started going to the library at these times too, in the hopes that she might notice him. So far, he hadn’t had much luck. Every time they were there together, he tried desperately to gather enough courage to talk to her, but the idea of approaching her made him anxious. So he never had. He just hoped that one day she might speak to him.

It was currently 4pm on a Wednesday, which was around the time she usually came to the library. Naturally, Saeran was already there, and he pulled out his laptop so he didn’t look too suspicious sitting there alone.

He was almost certain his brother, Saeyoung, had noticed the patterns in his behaviour, but he wasn’t sure whether or not he’d figured out why Saeran was being so consistent with it. Saeran hoped he just thought he was studying, because quite frankly he couldn’t deal with his brother’s stupid jokes. 

Saeran had never shown interest in a girl before, and at one point he had thought he never would. But, for some reason, she caught his eye and made his heart jump.

He hated it.

But he was also a little bit in love with it.

There she was. He spotted her immediately as she walked into the room, her bag slung over her shoulder and she looked a little flustered and annoyed. He wanted to ask her why. Putting her bag on a table a few spaces in front of his, she pulled the chair out and sat down.

This was the first time she’d ever sat facing him. Usually she faced the side, or had her back to him, and Saeran felt his breath quicken at the sight of her like this. He would be able to properly see her facial expressions now.

_Stop being creepy._

For a split second, she made eye contact with him as he stared at her, and he immediately flicked his eyes down to the blank screen of his laptop. He could feel his face heating up and he cursed himself for it, hoping she hadn’t noticed.

He aimlessly clicked around on the screen, pulling up an essay he probably should complete before closing it and opening his emails. After a few minutes he risked looking up, and saw her staring down at a textbook, eyebrows furrowed in confusion, highlighter in her hand hovering over the page. She sighed sharply, resting her head in her hand, gripping hold of her own hair in frustration. He had never seen her this worked up. Perhaps this would be a good opportunity to offer to help? But what if he didn’t understand it either? Realistically, he knew this was unlikely because he was pretty smart, but he still couldn’t bring himself to go over. Besides, she had one earphone in, meaning she probably didn’t want company.

As he watched her work and felt his stomach flipping inside him. She was so beautiful. He was coming to adore everything about her. The way her hair fell into her face and the way she tapped her pen on the book absentmindedly and the way she crossed her ankles under the desk.

Fuck. He was in too deep.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by someone yelling his name and an angry “shh” from the librarian.

Saeran snapped his head towards the noise, to see his brother bursting into the library and heading over to him. He groaned internally, and his eyes flicked back to her to see that she was also watching Saeyoung make his way over. Saeran wanted the ground to just swallow him up then and there at the sight of the big, mischievous grin on his twin’s face.

“Saeran!” exclaimed Saeyoung, thankfully more quietly than before, as he flopped himself on the chair next to Saeran and slung his arm around his shoulders.

“What are you doing here?” Saeran snapped, pushing his brother away so he wasn’t resting his entire body weight on him.

“I came to see what’s been bringing you in here so often,” he shrugged, apparently completely ignoring the glares the librarian was shooting at him, “I miss my wittle brother.”

“Piss off,” grumbled Saeran at his brother, his eyes flicking up to her. She was watching intently and he blushed and immediately looked away.

Saeyoung did not miss this.

He leaned in close to Saeran’s ear and whispered, “Is it her?”

“What?”

“Is it her? Is that why you keep coming here?”

“No,” he denied, although he was thankful Saeyoung was whispering rather than yelling.

Then Saeyoung squealed. Never mind.

“Oh my God, it _so_ is.” His voice was getting louder, earning him another angry “shh” from the librarian.

“Piss _off,_ Saeyoung,” he shot with as much venom as he could, as quietly as he could, “I’m trying to work.”

“You’ve just got your emails open.”

Saeran slammed his laptop closed.

“Piss off,” he growled for the third time.

“Saeran.”

He ignored him.

“ _Saeran."_

“ _What?”_

“You should talk to her.”

Saeran felt his heart skip a beat.

“What?” he blinked at his brother. Had he gone mad?

“You should talk to her. She keeps looking over at you.”

“I think she’s looking at you being an idiot,” snapped Saeran, but he couldn’t help but feel his heart flutter a little. He determinedly did _not_ look over at her to check his brother’s statement, and he willed himself not to blush again.

“I’ll go away if you go and say hi.”

“No.”

“Then I’ll stay.”

“ _No._ ”

“Pick one,” Saeyoung insisted, and Saeran groaned, burying his head in his hands for a moment. He quickly glanced up at the girl, and they locked eyes for a split second before she hurriedly looked away, blushing furiously.

“What am I supposed to say?” Saeran mumbled.

“Ask if she wants help with what she doesn’t understand.”

“What if I don’t understand it either?”

Saeyoung rolled his eyes, “You’re my identical twin brother, which by default makes you a genius,” he declared. “Anyway, it seems as though you’re too much of a pansy to actually do it.”

Saeran stood up suddenly, grabbing his laptop and shoving it in his bag. “If you won’t leave, then I will,” he spat, before storming out of the library, not daring to look back.

* * *

“Listen, Saeran, I’m _sorry_. I just think you should talk to her rather than staring at her creepily from the distance,” Saeyoung explained. Saeran shot him a look, before focusing back on his phone. “I think she likes you.”

“Why would you think that?”

Saeyoung shrugged, “Call it a hunch. Why does she keep going back to the library?”

“To study, obviously.”

“But _why_? She goes at the same times every week, right? What if _she_ goes to see  _you_?”

“That’s ridiculous.”

But he couldn’t help wondering…

* * *

The next time Saeran went to the library, he intentionally arrived a little later than usual so he could say hi to the girl and introduce himself without seeming too weird.

But when he arrived, she wasn’t there yet. He glanced around for a moment, standing in the doorway. Maybe she wasn’t coming today? He felt his heart sinking before he heard someone walk up behind him. He stepped to the side to let them past, before turning a little and seeing…

It was _her_.

“Oh, hi,” he stammered, trying to hide his surprise at her being there all of a sudden.

“Hi.” She smiled up at him. She was shorter than he had expected, and for some reason it made his heart skip a beat.

“Sorry if I was in the way…” he started before trailing off.

“Oh! No that’s okay.” She shook her head, still smiling. She had an amazing smile and it made Saeran’s cheeks flush slightly. It was contagious, and he found himself smiling back at her. “Uh… last week. That was your brother, wasn’t it?”

“Hm? Oh, right, yeah. Saeyoung.”

“He seems annoying,” she giggled softly.

“He is,” Saeran sighed, but he was still smiling. He looked down at her, barely able to believe she was within touching distance for quite possibly the first time ever. She was even prettier up close, and he could see the soft flush of her cheeks and her gentle lips and sparkling eyes. 

_Too invested already._

_“_ I… uh, how do you feel about studying together?” he offered, “Sometimes you look a little frustrated, and I was thinking perhaps I could help.” He almost slapped himself. He was pretty certain you weren’t supposed to let a girl know you’ve been staring at her for months.

“That sounds good!” she said brightly, and he let out a quiet breath of relief that she hadn’t found it too weird, “Let’s go, then.”

They sat at one of the library desks _actually next to each other_. Saeran had to keep blinking to remind himself this was real. He’d imagined it in his head so many times.

As if it weren’t enough, once she had pulled out her book, she placed it on the table between them and leaned closer to him. Saeran could feel his heart in his throat as she brushed against him, resting her chin on her hands. Saeran gripped the back of her chair, partly to ground himself and partly to make it feel as though he had his arm around her. She wasn’t exactly leaning away.

He barely noticed as she skimmed through the book to find what she was looking for until she pointed to it and leant back to look up at him.

“This part,” she said. “I just can’t get my head around it.”

He looked at where her finger was pointing, and almost laughed in relief when he saw it was something he understood.

“I can help with that.”

* * *

They started studying together every week, but Saeran still couldn’t bring himself to ask her on a date. He was slowly… or perhaps not so slowly… falling in love with her, and got butterflies whenever he saw her, or even just thought of seeing her. She made getting up in the mornings worth it.

One week, just before they were due to meet in the library, she called him.

“Saeran!” she said, slightly breathlessly, once he answered his phone, “I’m so sorry, I can’t get to the library today because I have this essay I have to do that I totally forgot about until now, and all my notes are here.”

“Oh, that’s fine,” he said, but he couldn’t help feeling disappointed. He supposed he _did_ have a test tomorrow he should probably study for without getting distracted. She must have heard the disappointment, because she continued.

“You’re more than welcome to come over.”

His back straightened, and he became hyper-alert, “Don’t you need to focus?”

“I don’t mind you being here,” she replied, “And if I get stuck, I can ask for help.”

“Oh, right, yeah okay that sounds good,” he answered, trying to no get too excited at the thought of seeing where she lived.

They hung up and she text him the address. It wasn’t too far, and only took him about 10 minutes to walk there.

He knocked on the door nervously and it opened within a few seconds, as though she’d been waiting.

“Hey!” she greeted, “Sorry about this, come in.”

He stepped inside and she led him upstairs. _Her room?_

Control yourself, Saeran. It doesn’t mean anything.

There were sheets of paper and books strewn around the floor, her laptop on the edge of it all.

“Make yourself comfortable,” she suggested, as she lowered herself to the floor, laying on her stomach in front of the laptop. Saeran sucked in a sharp breath. For some reason, seeing her lying on the floor like that made heat rush to his face. He scanned the room quickly before sitting on the floor a safe distance away and pulling a textbook out his bag.

“Thanks,” he mumbled. There was a moment of silence.

“You’re really smart, you know?” she commented absently.

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Another pause.

“Do you want to hang out after this?” he blurted all of a sudden. He could have punched himself. She looked up at him from her essay, eyes wide. “Never mind,” he muttered, leaning down to look at his book.

He was so busy cursing himself to notice that she’d moved to sit next to him. When he looked up at her, she was close, and it almost took his breath away.

“What are you doing?” he asked, trying not to sound like he was freaking out at her being so close.

“I… my essay isn’t due for another week,” she confessed.

“Wait… then why…?” he trailed off, and she just looked at him pointedly.

“I wanted to spend time with you,” she admitted quietly, before looking down at her fidgeting hands.

Before he knew what was happening, Saeran found his hand reaching out to stop hers from fidgeting nervously. She looked at their touching hands for a moment before looking up at him, their faces so close he could feel her breath on his lips. He gazed at her for a moment before leaning forwards slowly and pressing his lips to hers.

Her lips were softer than he could ever have imagined, and he brought his hand up to cup her jaw gently before he pulled back.

“Is this… is this okay?” he asked. He wanted to make sure he hadn’t completely misread the entire situation.

“Yes,” she whispered, and that was all he needed to lean in and kiss her again. He felt as though he was floating.

After a little while they pulled away for breath, resting their foreheads against each other.

“I… I really like you,” he confessed nervously. She giggled, and it was like music to his ears.

“I really like you too.”

And in that moment, he knew he’d never have trouble getting up in the mornings ever again.


End file.
